Excerpts from the book "Straight Shooting: What's Wrong with America and How to Fix It," by John Silber and "Public Values, Private Schools," a collection of essays edited by Neal E. Devins are presented.

Contrasts the two gubernatorial candidates from Massachusetts. Democrat John Silber, for 19 years president of Boston University, with an affinity for political brawls and Republican William F. Weld, Harvard Law and Oxford University, former federal prosecutor who has a reasonable chance of...